The Most Important Thing You’ll Write

September 27, 2011

In a recent article Chris Brogan Mentions the most important part of Twitter is to reply as often as you can. I’d like to expand o this, a bit.

If you have a blog I’m sure you’ve spent a sizable percentage of time (that you should be using to develop content) looking at you analytics page – how many views did the site get, where did they come from. But consider an interesting social behavior. Most people, as they bump past each other and make first and subsequent impressions, are thinking one thing. They are focussed on what others are thinking of them. Imagine an entire room filled with people caught in the ironic conundrum that as each one worries about what others are think of him/her – those others are just concerned with how they’re coming off to someone else. No one actually focusing on that scuff on your shoe, or whether that tie makes you look serious or or out of fashion, they are only focused on their own shoes and their own ties. In these situations the individuals that see the irony and stop focusing on themselves are able to focus on more important goals.

The Same goes for online communities. Staring at your statistics page will get you nowhere. The only way to really get your page out there in front of people is to give them a reason to notice you. start looking at other blogs, reply to what others have posted on their page. Make other people your focus, and have something interesting to say in reply to their posts, eventually they’ll start reciprocating, and more so, many of their readers may start to take notice of you as well.

By avoiding the neurotic self counting and just getting out there, you’ll be in a better place to have people wondering what you think about them.